Drag Race royalty Aquaria calls on RuPaul to open the show up to women: ‘They’ve been doing drag as long as the rest of us’
Aquaria wants to see more women on Drag Race. (Getty)
Drag Race royalty Aquaria says “she’d love to see more women” on the show, as the franchise gears up to launch yet another series devoid of women.
As Drag Race continues its bid for world domination with All Stars 5, which starts Friday (June 5), its failure to represent female drag performers (including trans women) has gone past the point where it could be considered an oversight.
It is a wilful omission which fans, former queens and even judges have expressed unease about. However, a few weeks ago, Drag Race and its Celebrity spin-off aired a double-bill of episodes which celebrated women.
Over the course of an evening the season 12 queens made over a group of cis women super fans, after which RuPaul welcomed three famous cis women to the werk room for Secret Celebrity Drag Race.
The episodes aired amid a fierce online debate after a viral post sought to criticise the inclusion of women in the show.
Aquaria, winner of Drag Race season 10, told PinkNews that she thought the complaints came “from a very misguided and silly perspective”.
“Females have been doing drag for as long as anyone else,” she said.
“And clearly, it’s entertaining. It’s something that can be utilised. And it’s something I’d love to see more on on the main series of RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Aquaria blasts the idea female queens ‘have an advantage’.
One argument that’s been used against including women in Drag Race is the perceived “advantage” their gender identity gives them.
It’s a rhetoric that RuPaul herself furthered in 2018, appearing to single out trans women by tweeting: “You can take performance enhancing drugs and still be an athlete, just not in the Olympics.”
https://twitter.com/rupaul/status/970709820364881920?lang=en
Aquaria, who’s previously demonstrated her support for trans performers, said that Drag Race’s recent women-centric episodes had proved this to be incorrect.
“Clearly, whatever transformation they’re looking for is still quite there. And whatever ‘unfair advantages’ people perceive women to have are clearly non existent.
“Half the s**t I do now is boy drag. So to say that a female-bodied person would excel over me, or that I would excel over them, is nonsense. Everyone should play together!”
She pointed out that “people who have run on Drag Race in the past and continue to compete on it” identify as women.
Sonique and Peppermint both came out as trans women during the show — however RuPaul infamously implied Peppermint had only been allowed to compete because she hadn’t undergone any gender-affirming surgeries at the time. He later apologised for his comments.
Since then Gia Gunn, who came out as trans after her season aired, returned to compete in All Stars 4.
In the first part of our interview Aquaria told PinkNews whether she’d consider going on All Stars herself, should the fabled winners’ season ever materialise.
